#we should be fostering communities instead of seeking fandoms for our work

[planefood]

Hi trosper!

How did you get people to care so much about your characters?

I had a longgg response planned for this talking about the intricacies of character design and making appealing character stories which while is important and I might make a larger post about it one day.

BUT I've been creating original characters for over 15 years and i've been posting my ocs online for over 10 years, so that being said... I have a LOT of characters. Character creation and making comics have been a passion of mine before I was even old enough to go to school. My first dive into large scale story creation outside of fanwork started with an epic called Prophecy of the Wind that I started in 2012. It was an absolute mess of stories in a strange furry world that made little to no sense.

Here is a cover for said story I made in when I was 12:

While I'll occasionally redraw these characters for fun I have zero plans or interest in working on this story in the future.

I used to beg people to read my story and interact with my ocs when I was a preteen, though with not much luck. This story was admittedly trash, confusing and only made sense to me. But, I worked on these characters anyway for years until I lost interest naturally and started work on a new project. This cycle continued and some projects got mildly popular and others remained obscure. I created things for fun and if people were interested in it that was just a bonus.

But really, I'm gonna be honest, a lot of what gets noticed online is just right place right time and a majority of my followers do not interact with my Tandy Chipperton story or care about the characters. Most are just interested in the character designs or just my other art or posts in general and that's fine. I can't force people to care about my characters anymore than anyone else can. The nature of this kind of art space is that almost everyone has original characters that they want people to pay attention to but from an audience perspective paying particularly close attention to everyones characters is near impossible.

The only advice I have is less direct. Ask yourself: If I saw my story out in the wild online with no context, would it interest me? Would the character designs draw me in? The concept? Ignoring that epic scene you have planned out in your head that you need to read 20 pages worth of character exhibition to get to, what's actually hooking the average person in? What stops it from being filtered into the noise of the internet.

But really, once you stop creating these personal things for fun but instead trying to appeal to some audience, it sucks the passion out of you. While I do spend a lot of time working on making Tandy Chipperton an interesting story, in the end its for me. Its appeal is niche, it's set in a country barely anyone lives, for one. And it doesn't even appeal to people within said country, outside of me. I guess all I'm saying is is create for yourself first and foremost. I understand the want for a larger audience for your ocs, but the unfortunate truth is that there's not a lot you can control in that aspect. How large an audience you have is not indicative of how good your story is. Please go out and enjoy creating just for the love of creating art.

[omniversalobservations]

Reality Shifting, or How To Travel the Omniverse in Five Easy TikTok Videos!

If you’ve been anywhere on the internet recently, you’ve likely heard about “Draco Malfoy TikTok”. It’s exploded in recent weeks — at time of writing, the hashtag #dracomalfoy currently boasts over 2 billion views. There’s a mix of videos and trends to be found within the #dracomalfoy tag: wholesome fan edits of clips from the Harry Potter films, PoV imaginings of what life would be like as Malfoy’s girlfriend, and general musings about just how unbearably hot he is.

In among these videos of Tom Felton being extremely, extremely fit, it’s not uncommon to stumble across a video explaining how you can literally be with Malfoy, through a process called reality shifting or just “shifting”. “Shifting is moving your consciousness from one reality to another reality,” this video explains. “You can train yourself to shift into an entirely different reality, such as Hogwarts.” There are shifting communities on apps like Amino and sites like Reddit, but it seems TikTok is home to the largest online shifting community.

The app’s hashtag #shiftingrealities has over 26.1 million views. While there are some videos from other fandoms, the overwhelming majority of these shifting videos are from Draco stans explaining how you can mentally transport yourself to Hogwarts. Interested? Of course you are. Well, there are two popular ways of doing this: “the raven method” involves lying down in a starfish position and counting down from 100 while imagining your desired reality, while the “the Alice in Wonderland method” requires the “shifter” to visualise themselves running after a person from their desired reality (for instance, Draco) and jumping down a rabbit hole with them. It sounds similar to lucid dreaming, but most members of the shifting community would argue that it’s far more intense and realistic than any dream.

Helen, 15, is a member of the ‘shifting community’ from Ireland. “I saw a lot of stuff on TikTok about shifting around a month ago and that was the first I’ve heard of it. I became very interested in it. I was confused at the idea of it at first, but I have a deeper understanding of it now that I’ve shifted myself,” she explains.

“Shifting is a very strange experience. It’s like an extremely vivid dream, yet it’s more real than any dream I’ve ever had. Before I plan on shifting I write myself a script in the notes app on my phone, in which I plan exactly what happens in the desired reality. This makes it easier to visualise exactly what I want to happen - so I might script that I want to go to Hogwarts and for Draco to be my boyfriend, or that he will flirt with me.”

LA-based Allison, 18, is another TikToker who’s dabbled in shifting. “I first got into Harry Potter in elementary school. My grandma loved the books and she would read them to us before bed — I always identified with the Slytherin house and had a crush on Draco,” she recalls. “Recently TikTok has reopened my love for the series.”

“Shifting is just something I found fascinating and I thought I’d try it out,” she explains. “The shifting experience is different for everyone. I see bright white lights flickering and my body begins to vibrate and go sort of numb. My legs will twitch and I’ll start to feel my thoughts get ‘lighter’. I’ll also hear people from my DR [desired reality] speaking - usually Draco.”

So what’s the science behind the strange phenomenon? Grace Warwick is a therapist with expertise in anomalous experiences. She says that this isn’t lucid dreaming, but is instead something called a “transliminal experience”. “Transliminal experiences occur when awake and are most common when the mind is in a soothed state - for example, upon waking and before falling asleep,” she explains. “The ‘instructions’ [for shifting] that abound on social media include being half asleep as a start point. They then introduce repetitive music [or] counting backwards slowly. All these factors would induce a state conducive to a transliminal experience. An interesting aspect of the techniques is the central part that a prepared ‘script’ plays - I would liken the role of the script to creating a guided meditation or working with active imagination.”

15-year-old Mavi lives in Florida and is another active member of both the shifting and Draco communities, boasting an impressive 149,000 followers on TikTok. Unlike Helen and Allison, she’s been into shifting for a long time. “Ever since I was little I have used daydreaming and lucid dreaming as an escape from my reality. About one year ago I came across shifting and I immediately felt drawn to it,” she explains. “Shifting feels like real life. I have only shifted to Hogwarts once [but] it was amazing. I made so many amazing friendships with the trio, Draco, Luna… it was the best time.”

Mavi says that she considers shifting a “hobby” - it’s clear she has a lot of varied interests, and shifting isn’t something which dominates or interferes with her day-to-day life. “I don’t wish I was in my DR full-time because I have so many things to live for in my CR [current reality], like acting and modelling.”

Evidently, Helen, Allison, and Mavi are all happy and healthy individuals, but Warwick says that these experiences can be different for different individuals. “For the vast majority, the current trend is simply the next iteration of our relationship to altered states — enjoyable and seemingly magical — but I would urge a sense of caution,” she says. “Key indicators to seek mental health support would be if the ‘shifter’ experienced anything that created fear for them, or challenged their belief system regarding what we could refer to as ‘consensual reality’. Also seek help if there is any ongoing drifting into altered states outside of intended ‘shifting’ sessions.”

Thankfully, as Warwick points out, “the vast majority” of shifters have a good experience: she says shifters can return to their current reality “[feeling] revived and energised by an experience that fitted with their belief system and experiential limits”. It’s also clear that both the Draco and shifting communities foster a healthy online space. “[The community] is actually a really nice environment and a great place to talk and express your common interests with people,” Helen says. Allison thinks “it’s definitely one of the kindest areas of TikTok”. And honestly, given the shitshow that 2020 has been, I think a (largely) wholesome community of young women who are all simultaneously Draco Malfoy’s girlfriend is the last thing anyone should be concerned about right now.

Source: i-D

(image via YouTube)

[fanexus-dot-net]

The Philosophy of Fanexus

As Fanexus comes together, we want to provide you with an outline of the philosophy that underlies the platform. The features and TOS that we are currently working on all aim to align with the following principles. 

A Social Media Platform for Fandoms and Creators

Fanexus is a social media platform and wiki that aims to meet the needs of both fandoms and original creators. We were inspired to create Fanexus after following online fandom and creative communities to various platforms over the years, only to find that most of these sites failed to meet our needs as fans and as creators of both fanworks and original content. While using these platforms, we started to come up with ideas for features that would enhance our experiences. Eventually, we realised we had the skills and the means to take these ideas and use them to create a social media platform that could meet these needs.  

Organised and Accessible Fan and Indie Content

One of our core principles is that fanworks and indie content have just as much value as official and mainstream material. The emotions evoked by these works can be just as profound, the ideas they explore can be just as engrossing, and the overall importance they have to a person can be just as significant. As this content often doesn’t aim or need to have the same broad appeal as official and mainstream works, it can venture into places that mainstream media won’t tread, thus having the potential to explore more daring ideas, and elicit more powerful emotions in some people.

Despite fan and indie works generating as much personal value as official and mainstream material, they lack the same degree of organisation, accessibility, and permanency. If someone is looking to track down a piece of mainstream media or find information about it, they will generally find a record of its existence, a way to access the media itself, and information that helps put it in context with any related pieces of media. By contrast, if someone is seeking out a piece of fan or indie work they once enjoyed, it’s common to find that it’s been deleted, or has simply been buried under so much subsequent content that it’s impossible to find again.  

Another common experience is discovering a piece of fan or indie content that is part of a larger set of works, but lacking information explaining the context of the content with respect to the larger collection. Picture finding an image of an original character from a story crafted by multiple roleplayers and wanting to learn more about the character and story. Different parts of the story and information about its characters and lore may have been provided by each of the different roleplayers on their own blogs, across a mixture of platforms, and may have each used slightly different tagging conventions. Some posts explaining vital things may have been mistagged or deleted. The lack of centralised organisation that can give people an easy starting point and order in which to consume some fan and indie content presents a significant barrier of entry for people who might tremendously enjoy certain works.  

A similar experience can occur when a newcomer enters an old fandom that has developed a vast collection of fanon characterisation, worldbuilding, and terminology. Many of these conventions were likely established years ago on platforms that may not exist anymore. The newcomer may feel completely lost when encountering this fanon material, and unless there’s an up to date and easy to locate fanon wiki providing explanations for all of these concepts and terms, or a seasoned fan is willing to provide a full explanation, it can take a significant investment of time for them to figure out what all of it means. As a result, entering such an established fandom can be more confusing and inaccessible than it needs to be.

Fanexus endeavours to give fan and indie content a level of organisation, accessibility, and permanency that elevates it to a level closer to that of mainstream content. One of the means by which we seek to do this is by including wiki functionality. Creators will be able to make wiki pages for things such as their OCs, AUs and roleplays, with summaries containing key points, and guides linking to the relevant content, while explaining the order in which it should be consumed. Fandoms can also work together to create wiki pages explaining fanon concepts and terminology, and the number of different ways they are interpreted by the fandoms. As Fanexus grows, we seek to find ways to make fanworks and indie content increasingly organised and accessible.

Promote Creative Diversity and Enable Tailored Experiences

Fanexus cherishes variety – the more differing fandoms, interests, creative activities, interpretations, preferences, and styles that we can cater to, the better. We stand in opposition of homogenisation in fandom, especially where only particular interpretations and preferences are favoured, while whatever doesn’t comply with these dominant readings and tastes gets pushed to the margins or is attacked for daring to stray. We don’t want any fan to feel they have to alter their headcanons or style to better conform to whatever is preferred by the majority or vocal segments of their fandom. If someone doesn’t enjoy the ideas and creative styles that are predominant in their fandom, we want them to be able to avoid this content, and instead find material that does appeal to them.  

We promote the idea of fandom as an infinite multiverse of possibilities, where each interpretation is equally legitimate, and no reading invalidates any other, because in an endless multitude of fictional realities, all ideas and desires can co-exist. We hold that even canon doesn’t have more legitimacy than the vast array of fan reinterpretations and reimaginings it inspires. We think that it’s important to financially support canon content as it helps the generation of more of what we all love, but we believe that fanworks are just as real and just as enjoyable. By extension, we hold that fanworks that stray far from and wildly contradict the canon that inspired them are no less important than fanworks that fit in seamlessly with that canon. It’s helpful to have a fandom in agreement over what’s explicitly canon so that fanworks can be labelled as either canon-compliant or canon-deviant, to let content consumers know what they’re in for – canon is a point of reference for fandom. However, labelling something as canon-deviant isn’t an admission of inferiority, it’s simply another way of contributing to the rich variety of the fandom experience.

In order to help promote this variety we desire, we endeavour to facilitate the creation of subcultures within broader fandom cultures, so that people who don’t vibe with the predominant interpretations and preferences in a fandom can form communities with like-minded fans. We provide fine-tuned filter features to help people avoid content they dislike without missing out on what they do want to see. The tagging system enables the creation of tags for very specific concepts that are connected to tags for related concepts; for example, a character from a franchise with many continuities can have a main tag for that character, but also have subordinate character tags for each continuity they appear in. A tag can also be created for a specific fanon characterisation of that character which ignores certain canon developments. Through this, fans who only enjoy certain versions or interpretations of a character, even if those versions are fanon, can choose to follow tags for only those versions that appeal to them. The relationships between the tags also mean that people who enjoy certain things can investigate the related tags for those concepts, and find new things that interest them.

We hope to foster diversity in creativity by promoting an atmosphere that celebrates variety; by allowing people to pursue their niche interests without getting in each other’s way, and by creating a map of concepts that makes it easy to navigate a vast range of branching ideas. We want to be home to fanworks ranging from those that perfectly replicate the themes, characterisation, and tone of canon, to those that go completely wild by throwing in every indulgent and out-there idea, thus creating something entirely unique and far removed from the canon that inspired it. We want people to analyse canon through a vast range of different lenses, arriving at all sorts of wildly conflicting but fascinating theories and interpretations. We want for fanworks to inspire fanworks of their own and to be the basis of analysis themselves. We want to be home to a dizzying collection of original works. We want people to use Fanexus to build their own little universes that reflect their own set of interests and ideas, and then be able to find like-minded people to share them with.  

Combat Toxicity and Promote Respectful Discussion  

People deserve respect, compassion, and the freedom to pursue whatever makes them happy, as long as they’re not harming others in this pursuit. No one should ever be seriously threatened or dehumanised – especially when it comes to traits outside their control such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc., or over interests and lifestyle choices that aren’t causing harm to others, such as taste in fiction and ships. Over the last few years, toxicity in fandom has risen to truly alarming levels. Countless fans have been degraded, threatened with violence, and doxxed over things as benign as the characters, ships, and tropes they enjoy in fiction. This is completely unacceptable to us.  

We stand firmly in opposition to this bullying, and we will strive to make Fanexus a place where fans and creatives are free to express themselves and enjoy their passions, without fear of becoming a target of harassers. By giving people the ability to form private communities where they can carve out their own spaces with like-minded fans, and by providing more fine-tuned privacy and filtration features to make it easier for users to avoid content they don’t want to see, we hope this will limit the germination of toxicity. However, we want Fanexus’s commitment to combating fandom bullying to extend beyond simply providing better privacy and filtration features; an anti-bullying stance will be written into the Terms of Use and will be actively promoted by the administrators and staff. Anyone seeking to bring the cruelty and toxicity that festers on other platforms to Fanexus will not be tolerated.

Our stance on bullying does not mean that we are opposed to criticism of behaviour, ideas and works, as long as the discourse is respectful. We ask people to understand that there is a line between critical discussion of a person’s behaviours, ideas, and works, and personally attacking someone because of beliefs they may hold or something they have created. A user expressing a view that constitutes hate speech or harassment should be reported, and can subsequently be dealt with by our moderators. If someone publicly expresses a view you feel to be disagreeable, you are certainly free to engage in debate with them if you can do so in a constructive way. If you don’t feel that you are able to criticise their behaviours without making personal attacks, we ask you to block them instead of generating unnecessary conflict.

We believe that a loss of nuance and the rise of absolutist thinking bears much responsibility for the surge of toxicity in fandom, and we want to combat it by promoting critical thinking. We understand that many people use fandom as a form of escapism where they can switch off their brains, and we welcome fans and creators who come for indulgence without any deep thought behind it. However, we also value users who contribute thoughtful and rational analysis and discussion, and we seek to encourage and promote such engagement for those who are interested.  

Harm Reduction Without Censorship

Fanexus should be an environment that is both enjoyable and safe, but we also want it to be a liberating space where people are able to freely express themselves artistically, indulge in the things that make them happy, and be their authentic selves. Many people desire lives that are enriched by a variety of experiences, from serene to thrilling, from comforting to confronting, from pulp to profound. Art and fiction can be one of the best ways to live out the full breadth of the human (and inhuman) experience without harming oneself or others. We believe that so long as they’re not causing harm, people should have the right to live the lives they want to live, and we support their right to use art and fiction towards that end. This doesn’t mean that there is no risk in using fantasy as a way of exploring some experiences – some people can struggle with the separation between fantasy and reality, or be misled into thinking some behaviours presented in art and fiction are normal or acceptable in the real world. We don’t believe that censorship is the solution to this problem.

We seek to reduce harm while limiting as few freedoms as possible. We don’t permit malicious behaviors that actively intend to cause harm, such as bullying, while we aim to remedy the harms of other behaviours by addressing their cause. If harm stems from naivety or misunderstanding, we seek to remedy these factors. When harm is caused as an unintended side-effect of an activity with a neutral or positive aim, then instead of banning the activity, we first endeavour to find if the harmful side-effect can be separated from the activity and its benefits. If there is a way to satisfactorily reduce harm without limiting freedoms, that is the path we will take.

We hold that censorship is a poor method for addressing the potential harms caused by art and fiction, not only because it limits freedom, but also because it doesn’t address the underlying problem. If a person isn’t exposed to any art or fiction that could potentially give them harmful ideas, they are still vulnerable as they can acquire those ideas from many other sources. Rather than attempting the impossible task of shielding people from ever encountering difficult or confronting concepts, we maintain that it’s more effective to assist in their education to help prevent them from taking the wrong messages away from these concepts when they do encounter them.

Fanexus endeavours to allow as much artistic freedom as possible (excepting content made with malicious intent as a form of harassment), because we understand that art and fiction are not reality, and things that would be unacceptably dangerous or harmful in real life don’t carry the same risk in fantasy. We know that many people who enjoy harmful and taboo things in art and fiction do not endorse these things in reality, and that vicariously experiencing these things through fantasy is extremely different from experiencing them in real life. We seek to promote this understanding of the distinction between fantasy and reality, so that it’s clear that something presented as enjoyable in fiction is not necessarily something that would be enjoyable or safe to partake in personally.  People should know to think critically about things they encounter in art and fiction before they decide to emulate them in reality.  

There are far more dangerous things on the internet than just morally complex and darkly indulgent fantasy, and Fanexus seeks to provide education to help protect against these threats as well. We intend to create a repository of resources to educate people about the risks they can encounter online, such as predators, scammers, hate movements, and dangerous misinformation. Our aim is to protect people by empowering them with knowledge that will help them in many spheres of life.

Evolve in Response to User Feedback  

Fandom and technology both evolve, and we acknowledge that a platform like Fanexus must evolve with them. We intend to seek direct feedback from our userbase in order to discover what features will assist them in creating and maintaining the content Fanexus is dedicated to. However, while our platform will evolve over time, we pledge to remain committed to the philosophy that motivated its creation.

[bigskydreaming]

maurianasravenholdt replied to your post:

So, okay. The posts about how psychodrama and...

I read all of this and was very interested. I have to sit with it for a while, because I have questions. If, for example, a non-con fic is written by a survivor, is it not also taking away personal agency to say that ‘there are too many of that kind of fic’ or ‘someone else might be titillated by your fic so it shouldn’t be published’? Some of it feels… eerily familiar to what survivors of rape and harassment face regularly. The censorship of their coping mechanisms.

See, but this is precisely why I always make a point to stress that my aim is fostering an environment that encourages personal accountability, rather than people ducking and hiding communally behind the shield of ‘well some survivors use it to cope’ - when we all know damn well from the sheer volume of noncon, pedophilia and incest SMUT specifically....that its not all being written by survivors. Not to mention there is a significant tonal difference between various fics, with many feeling more ‘permissive’ and even encouraging of the noncon scenarios vs those that have at least a bit more ambiguity to them and suggests that the author has at least mixed feelings about what they’re writing and more likely is working through some stuff than just seeking to write masturbation fodder for people into this stuff.

Like, its impossible to know how many fics like this are written by survivors as attempts at coping mechanisms vs how many are written by nonsurvivors just for sexual gratification.....just like its impossible to know which are written by which. Nor, do I think, should it even be attempted - that’s the gatekeeping I’m so often accused of wanting. The idea that survivors must flash their trauma credentials at the top of a fic as a disclaimer for being allowed to write it.

The point is not identifying works written by survivors vs non survivors, the point is merely hold a macro level awareness that REGARDLESS of which fics are written by which authors.....it remains inarguable that there is no stretch of the imagination in which EVERY ONE OF THESE FICS is written by survivors for self-healing reasons.

So the thing about the coping mechanisms argument above all else, in terms of why I hate it so much, is because by extension....given how often its held up as a defense against criticism of these works in general....there’s no way that everyone who trots out that argument is ACTUALLY one of the survivors writing these things for self-healing.

Which is a big reason why the sight of that argument always has me raising my hackles in the first place....because again - I don’t know who’s a survivor and who isn’t, I’m not TRYING to vet anyone or tell the difference...but I don’t NEED to in order to still be aware that over the years there’s been a shitload of people who have happily used survivors that happen to agree with them or hold opinions that enable their own ‘kinks’....as kinda a human shield against criticism. And that to me, is absolutely disgusting and reprehensible, and the willingness people have to engage in that kinda bullshit is a problem in and of itself, IMO.

But all of that ultimately circles back around to....personal accountability. I’ve never argued for any kind of fandom accountability, where only certain people, appropriately vetted and appointed or what the fuck ever, get to weigh in on certain conversations or write certain content. I’ve merely always been arguing....regardless of whom these things might or might not apply to...I at LEAST want the people who hear what I have to say on these matters and find I’ve mentioned new angles or perspectives they hadn’t considered before, that make them question the....unquestioning way they’ve parroted these arguments before or written these fics assuming its no big deal because general fandom sentiment assured them it wasn’t....like, if people just stopped running from even having these arguments or hearing these criticisms at all, and just started re-examining their own choices on these matters and whether or not they’re entirely comfortable with long-unquestioned decisions or arguments once they apply a little more scrutiny to them....honestly, that’s a good enough start for me. 

Again, I don’t know who is a survivor who actually uses writing dark noncon fics as a coping mechanism, and who isn’t a survivor and just writes them because they’re their ‘guilty pleasure’ or whatever. But YOU know, as in you, any individuals reading me writing posts like this. And I don’t have to know who is whom, in order to just ask that people who DO know perfectly well what applies to them and what doesn’t, like....then THINK about these things.

I’m well aware it won’t do anything to address the people that categorically just don’t give a fuck because they actually ARE pedophiles and the like, and actually get off on all this stuff with full self-awareness as to what they’re doing and seeing appeal in it at its basest levels.....like, they’re not going to do a damn thing differently, sure. But the more people stop seeing ‘well survivors use it to cope’ as an acceptable shield to hide behind if it has nothing to do with them and their reasons for writing certain content....the more these other people have to scramble for other arguments entirely, to hide behind. Which is more and more likely to show them for what they are, and make them stick out as predators rather than community.

Censorship is useless and always will be, IMO. Because the problem isn’t that these works exist. The problem is that these works and the permissive atmosphere they’re regarded in blanket all of fandom in such a way that actual predators have abundant camouflage to move around in and act like they’re just part of the gang, like any other fan.

Censor these kind of works, shut off the faucet....doesn’t accomplish anything towards the true issue of there still being predators in all these fandom spaces....and now they simply have to be even more circumspect and subtle about grooming potential victims, etc.

But the more we build atmospheres of personal accountability in our fandom spheres, expecting people to look honestly at their own actions and impacts and make their choices based on actually asking their consciences what they’re okay with rather than just blindly repeating the things they’ve been told that save them from having to do that work...THAT actually has potential to address the real root issue. Because the more being expected to be aware of your impact and footprint among your own community becomes actually commonplace....the more the behavior of those who still refuse to prioritize anything over their own wants, 24/7, sticks out and makes people wary of that. While at the same time....the more people, minors especially, are encouraged to do their own critical thinking in regards to these matters before drawing their conclusions on what THEY feel most comfortable with.....the less vulnerable they become to the grooming tendencies of predators who RELY on this idea of just....accepting ‘this is the way fandom works though’ when presented with it by older, more established fans.

So ultimately, my beef with the coping mechanisms argument is that as long as fandom’s happy to spout it unanimously as their go-to defense against criticism on these matters, really it just goes to show its being used as a derailing tactic. Allowing the people who AREN’T survivors whom its true for, to just toss it up there without a second thought, and never have to engage honestly with the conversation we’re trying to have.

As to the validity and viability of these fics as coping mechanisms? Tbh, like....that’s not really something I’m all that interested in arguing. The concerns I outlined in that other post are still there and things I stand by, but like I also said in it, and said here....I have zero interest in arguing with someone who says “no, this helps me” and instead telling them no, you’re wrong, it doesn’t. 

I do think its still reasonable to at least ask people keep in mind the arguments about why they perhaps do as much harm as good. I do think its appropriate to expect people to be a little less confident in putting forth “this is the way this works” to newcomers and minors in fandom who look to them as examples, hear all this validation of this specific coping mechanism and assume it must be a good thing, and if it doesn’t seem to work for them too, well they must be doing it wrong. And also, I think its important that people acknowledge that coping mechanisms are NOT innately good or healthy. They’re simply tools we come up with to deal with our traumas, and like any tools, they’re not inherently good or bad, right or wrong. I mean, you start going around getting into fights to distract from shit you have bottled up and aren’t dealing with, to just feel alive, as a way to punish yourself, etc....all of those reasonings for frequent physical fights can still viably fall under the umbrella of being ‘coping mechanisms’ for being physically abused at home yourself and with no possibility of fighting back against your abuser....but does that make them automatically healthy? And does that mean that you’re not still harming the people you pick fights with just to have an excuse to beat on someone? No and no.

And so on that note, I don’t think its unreasonable to expect even survivors to keep that in mind when making decisions as well, because our desire to heal and move past our trauma is not permission or an excuse to hurt other people in the process. And again - I have zero desire to track down any single individual, figure out whether or not they’re a survivor, and quiz them on their choices and motivations and decide whether I approve or not. I just want people to stop trying to act like we all live in a vacuum and our choices can somehow affect people positively, but never negatively. Simply because we don’t want to pair any kind of responsibility with the escapism we come to fandom for.

But we talk a lot about how online fandom was ‘made’ and who made it and a lot of other things that basically signal our awareness that fandom is an artificial construct. It didn’t just exist as it is, and we stumbled across it and what we found is what we got. We made it. Its homegrown.

And there’s a big problem, IMO, when we’ve ended up in a state where we go about literally building communities....while simultaneously trying to hold on to the idea that we’re each only here to take what we can from our communities and have no responsibility towards each other, to at least honestly be aware of our impact and influence on others around us...and to make an effort to not carelessly inflict or help perpetuate harm, while blithely saying oh that has nothing to do with us. 

When we ask ourselves even the simple question of “are these fics actually helping me or do I just want to believe that, or are they a placebo maybe, or are they maybe simply desensitizing me, and either way, what effect are they having on my community at the same time? And if I can’t actually confidently say they’re helping me heal, they’re what I NEED, and other people are claiming concern and harm stemming from this overall trend I’m contributing to here....does it really hurt me to look around for other potential coping mechanisms that I might feel more confident in, or won’t carry such concerns?

The reason I object so much to being constantly accused of wanting censorship, is that’s the complete ass backwards takeaway of literally everything I’ve ever said on this subject.

After all, censorship is ultimately an external third party being responsible for deciding what is and isn’t published and proliferated, based on their reasoning.

What I’m arguing for, and always have been, is the EXACT LITERAL OPPOSITE:

Encouraging and ultimately expecting individuals to be responsible for what they do and don’t publish and proliferate, and actually APPLY their own reasoning to their choices there, rather than simply hitting “Publish” without a second thought and waiting for the kudos and comments to roll in while preparing to ignore all criticism, regardless of what it may be.

[livingwithashipname-blog]

i used to love scorpion but it's become mediocre since the second half of season 2 bc all they've done is bait waige. tbh, it's not a good ship and maybe i'm biased bc i've headcanoned walter as aromantic (which would've worked much better in terms of his character since the show seems to be telling ppl with higher IQ that to find a place they belong they have to develop EQ to "evolve" when as a society, we should be accepting them and not making them fit in with us)

No offense anon, but…  Is there a question in this?  It’s unclear exactly what you’d like to discuss or know from me.  But I chose to take my time with this response in order to open a discussion within the fandom.  This isn’t a rant.  Lol!

I disagree with the notion that the show is telling its audience that high IQ, low EQ individuals have to develop EQ to evolve or fit into society.  This insinuates that the geniuses sacrifice their intellect in order to become less socially inept.  This is simply not the case.  One of the show’s core messages is to communicate the benefits of emotional intelligence in relation to one’s goals to share that intellect with the masses - learning to adapt without sacrificing identity.  The message is continuously addressed with Walter O’Brien because he is the genius with the lowest EQ, the creator of Scorpion, and uses his business as a hub for like-minded individuals with various skill sets.  

What makes us different from animals as humans is cognition - the ability to reflect on our thoughts and experiences and act on them to change ourselves and our environments.  Walter is not efficient at processing emotion to label it properly, meaning that he can not identify behaviors to which he can not relate.  This does not mean he can not emote, but the amount of EQ he gains over time is learned.  It does not derive from within.  The same is true of the other geniuses to a lesser extent.  (Elyes Gabel talked about this at the cast’s first SDCC appearance - Walter has an emotional vault that he struggles to access.)  Furthermore, Walter’s environment contributes to how well he can regulate his emotions.  In the show, Walter’s intelligence was fostered as a child through his work for the government.  But his emotional development was only fostered through Megan because she accepted him for his differences unlike his parents.  This is why he was so protective of her medical care and fought hard on an intellectual level to save her.  Since Walter’s emotional development is an arc for the entire series, his character will be written to show his successes and failures in various aspects of his life in relation to his life goals.  

As far as attraction is concerned, Walter could be written as aromantic in relation to his genius.  This would have been a great and intriguing development.  But various moments in the show suggest that Walter, at the least, is romantically attracted to women for now.  Therefore, his emotional intelligence will also have an impact on any romantic relationship he seeks to have given the show’s premise.  If you’ll indulge me, allow me to explain using recent scenarios from the show, present the conundrum that lies within fandom, and how that conundrum is capitalized in order to “bait” fans on Waige under the cut.  It’s long, so don’t say I didn’t warn ya! 😜

Examples from Canon

In episode 2.22 Hard Knox, the team mobilized to help Ralph win his court battle.  Ralph tried to explain his program’s functions to Walter, but he couldn’t understand Ralph’s approach.  Sadly, Walter projected his frustration over a problem he couldn’t solve in that moment onto Ralph.  This led to Ralph walking away feeling defeated and Paige threatening to quit.  When he realized the mistake in his behavior, he approached Ralph and said this, “what upset me is that you were willing to slow down for me to-to let me go down the wrong road, when that would’ve hindered you, because I couldn’t grasp your work.  Never hobble your intelligence for anyone… because if you do that in this garage, imagine what you’ll have to do out there… for humans.  The world needs to catch up to you… because if-if it can, just a little, imagine what a… a beautiful place it could be.”  This example is unique because it reinforces the show’s core message in IQ vs. EQ on the basis of intelligence, not emotion.

In 3.15 Sharknerdo, Walter argued with the client over the way he stated the service fee instead of accepting the fact that the client was not interested in learning the correct way to communicate $109,000.  This cost the team their job and dismantled the weeks of work Paige did to secure that contract.  Paige was rightfully frustrated because Walter couldn’t get like Elsa and let it go. 😂  Plus, it’s even more frustrating that Walter secured a new job on contingency, where payment is only guaranteed upon completion of services.  This is bad for Walter despite the fact that Paige is the liaison for several reasons: 1) he talked with the client in her absence, 2) he lost a job with a secured fee and replaced it with a less secure one (that’s not good business when you have employees to pay), and 3) he is the boss of Scorpion who makes the final decisions.  In Paige’s absence, he is the next point of contact for independent jobs (those not issued through Homeland Security).  This is the statute of limitations when it comes to his goals for Scorpion.  He has to acquire skill sets to make him more efficient at communicating with average/high EQ, non-geniuses if he wants to diversify his clientele to do more good in the world.  In other words, he has to learn and apply approaches on an EQ level to appeal to normals in order to get them to his level or create an equal playing field.  Another great example of this can be found in his interaction with the foreman in 3.14 The Hole Truth after his talk with Happy.  I apply the same tactic as a researcher.  I have to know my audience and how to address them in order to communicate my findings and spark interest.  If I do not, I limit my reach and open doors to miscommunication and misunderstanding.  

Also take into consideration instances where Walter has lied about facts in order to achieve the greater good.  Episode 2.04 Robots is a great example.  What’s also interesting about this episode and others in which this has happened is that Walter doubts the scope of his own emotional intelligence.  The same is seen with Happy Quinn whose EQ is closer to Walter’s.  If you have read any of my reviews, I talk about this doubt factor several times.  Walter and Happy have demonstrated emotional mastery in both their work and personal lives.  Their main issue is consistency outside the limitations their logical brains impose on their emotional functionality.  Yet overall, they improve each season.

This show is loosely-based on the real Walter O’ Brien, who is an executive producer.  If you ask him to choose between IQ and EQ, he will tell you, EQ over IQ, from his own personal experiences which has been infused widely throughout this show.  You can read that interview HERE and learn what he did to create the show.  It’s very enlightening!

Fandom Realities

Here’s the conundrum that stems from fandom.  (If you read the interview, then you already got a sense of what I am about to say.)  Scorpion is an action dramedy in two parts - personal stuff and mission stuff.  And these two elements are interchanged in every episode.  However, the majority of fan commentary on the show is about the romances first, the other personal storylines second, and the missions last.  This means the greatest pull, as far as spoilers and other marketing strategies are concerned, is information on the ships whether it’s through social media, press releases, or cast interviews.  The majority of fans don’t get excited over the missions (or else that would be reflected in fandom convo and creations).  Scorpion covers some real projects like the Chernobyl dome and the Svalbard Doomsday Vault (both of which are really cool btw).  And I am curious if an upcoming episode will take a note from a docu-drama on Mars that debuted on National Geographic.  Anyways, Waige is not canon and yet Waige-centric episodes receive behind-the-scenes exclusives on pop culture news sites like Entertainment Online.  Katherine McPhee and Elyes Gabel are sent out on press to talk about them.  You do not see similar treatment with the other ships because Waige is the main ship of the show.  All others are side ships, regardless how much exposure they get.  Quintis is highlighted in the storyline because the relationship is between two main characters, who are both high IQ, low EQ individuals, as opposed to Callie (RIP 💀) which is between a main and a guest, both of whom have average/high EQ.  

The showrunners, writers, cast have alluded and established in many ways that Waige is an endgame, slow burn otp.  The mystery lies in WHEN this will happen.  It would be stupid for them to reveal that information.  But they use episodes to answer that question for the fans.  As fans, we can choose to trust what is there to put our expectations in check or fall for the bait!  Besides, we get more receipts the more the writers use more than one episode to foreshadow.  If we don’t like what we see after some time, we have to determine what is the breaking point and move on or devise a new plan to indulge the content (e.g., skip episodes, binge later).  We also have to take into consideration that some decisions are in the hands of network execs.  At the end of the day, it makes no sense to engage in endless emotional masochism over something we no longer enjoy.  It’s silly!  But I digress.  If you want to know more about my theories on Waige, feel free to go to my page, type “the Waige flip” in the search engine, and read all about it.  As someone who ships Waige, I don’t have any questions on them until season 4, episode 12/13.

I will not argue whether Waige is a good ship or not because it’s not my place to police opinion.  What I will say is that Waige is an intriguing pairing because it is a relationship between a low EQ individual and a high EQ individual - a genius and a normal.  (Btw, high IQ, high EQ individuals exist - it’s a function of nature vs. nurture.  But that’s a topic for a different day!).  Melvester had the same dynamic, but the EQ gap between Megan and Sly was much less than that between Walter and Paige.  For this reason, Waige will always face unique challenges.  Like I said at the beginning of all this, Walter’s emotional development is a series arc and his triumphs and failures will extend to his personal life.  But one thing this show does well is communicate understanding in the team’s decisions, both geniuses and non-geniuses, whether you agree with their stances or not.  That’s necessary given the show’s premises!

If you’ve read up to this point, CONGRATS!!! You have survived another Emanda’s Inner Sanctum analysis/thought piece!  Toodles peeps! 😘✌🏾️